Wages
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Behind USA’s Tip Culture: A Workaround for Employers to Escape Minimum Wage Payments
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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a series of updated regulations in 2020 and 2021 to protect tipped workers, including amendments to sections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These regulations protected employee tips from employers and addressed the two-tiered wage system that allowed employers to take partial…
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Should Cities Compete? The Case Against Federal Contracts
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With stagnating wages and declining entrepreneurship across the United States, state and local governments are under increasing pressure to deliver economic good news. Cities are in constant competition, dedicating considerable time and resources to business incentives and vying for federal grants and contracts. Historically, the full extent to which these…
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Do Industrial Robots Contribute to Unemployment and Lower Wages?
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Over the past few years, rapid advances in technology have posed greater threats to jobs, especially those vulnerable to automation. Recently, McKinsey published a report analyzing the technical feasibility of automation in several occupations and concluded that service, manufacturing, and construction industries are all at risk of automation. Yet, the…
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Economists Are Finding a New Perspective on Immigration
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As recently as twenty years ago, economists taught that as the supply of unskilled labor increased due to immigration, legal or otherwise, the wages and employment of natives would fall as the two groups competed for a fixed number of jobs. This perspective casts immigration as a potential threat to…
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The Uneven Retreat from Marriage
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A study shows the ways in which demographic changes regarding marriage, divorce, and cohabitation in the past 50 years have fostered family inequality across socioeconomic groups, causing negative impacts for children.
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Technical Education at a Community College Improves Graduates’ Future Earnings
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A new NBER working paper shows how many Career Technical Education programs in California’s community college system increase earnings by larger amounts.
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Occupational Licenses: Reason for Caution or Celebration?
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A new study finds occupational licenses increase wages, employment, and benefits of those with licenses. While good for entrenched workers, these licenses could be problematic for consumers and non-licensed workers.
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Who Feels the Effects of Corporate Tax Change?
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A new study uses a spatial model of local economies to calculate the incidence of corporate income tax on firms, workers, and landowners.
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The Unseen Taxes Created by the Affordable Care Act
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A new study explains the effects on the labor supply created by the Affordable Care Act. The ACA creates a penalty on employers that incentivizes a reduction in full-time hiring, as well as creating an implicit tax on full-time employees that encourages them to work less.
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Do you want a higher minimum wage with that?
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This classic study of fast food restaurants challenged economic orthodoxy on the minimum wage.
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Do Employers Care About Potential Employees’ Long-term Unemployment Spells?
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Long-term unemployment spells do not influence employers’ hiring decisions according to new research in the American Economic Review.